AVID Question

[Michael Hancock]

When I was on Avid every day I would either park my playhead where I wanted my shot to extend to and used Extend Edit (you can map it to your keyboard) or I’d go into Trim Mode, select my edit point and do a double-roller trim by grabbing the end and dragging it out (ala FCP style). I believe there’s a Smart Tool trim option now where you can grab the ends of clips and drag them out.

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Greg Burke]

Thanks A ton. I WILL MASTER AVID!!!!!

I wear many hats.
http://www.gregburkepost.com

[Michael Hancock]

You will. It just takes time and patience. Take full advantage of the Avid forum here on the COW and check out Avid’s forums too. There are about 200 tutorials posted there for new users.

Keep at it. Once you get familiar with the interface and the Avid way of doing things you’ll play it like a finely tuned instrument. Learn the keyboard too, and map everything you can to it.

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Andrew Mckee]

You need to master trim mode. It is probably my favourite thing about Avid and if you can get fast with it, you will love it. With the smart tool you can access trimming without having to enter trim mode now, if you prefer to do stuff with the mouse. Clicking in the middle of the cut with the smart tool on will give you a dual roller trim which works exactly the same as the roll tool in FCP. Clicking just to the left or right will give you a single roller trim which works like the ripple tool in FCP. Depending on weather you put your mouse at the top of clip or the bottom you will get two types of single roller trim, Ripple Trim (yellow) or Overwrite Trim (red). The Ripple trim will push or pull all later shots up and down the timeline as you add or remove. The Overwrite trim will remove media and leave a gap if you drag it one way or overwrite the next or previous clip (just like an dual roller trim would) if you drag it the other. If you don’t like the smart tool you can try the traditional trim mode (U to enter it) which is the same but does not have an overwrite trim.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Erik Jägberg]

An easy way to enter trim mode is to select the cut with the ALT modifier key pressed. That way You can limit your selection to a single track without having to activate or deactivate tracks.
The ALT key is also perfect for selecting large chunks of clips in segment mode.

And as others have said before: practice!
The most difficult thing isn’t really learning a new system, it’s the going back and forth that can be a bit confusing.

Cheers!
Erik

[Gary Hazen]

[Andrew McKee] “You need to master trim mode.”
+1

Here’s a tute on the trim tool.
https://www.avid.com/US/avid-tv/MC5UnderstandingTrimConcepts